Rabbis Ask U.S. Jewish Groups for Unified Action on Jews in Russia

The Rabbinical Assembly, central body of the Conservative rabbinate, called upon the American Jewish community today to confer and agree upon unified action to meet “the threat to Jewish life in the Soviet Union.”

The resolution was one of a number adopted here today at the conclusion of the Assembly’s 62nd annual convention, which opened last Sunday. The measure dealing with the situation of Russia’s 3, 000, 000 Jews proposed unified American-Jewish action on the following three points:

“1. A program that will constantly seek to impress the anguished concern of American Jewry over the fate of their co-religionists in the USSR.

“2. A clearly formulated demand that the same rights and facilities and prerogatives afforded to other religious communities in the Soviet Union be extended to Russian Jewry.

“3. A comprehensive program that will keep the fate of Russian Jewry on the top priority of the agenda of American Jewry.’

The Assembly endorsed a recommendation from its committee on Jewish laws and standards for a conference between “representatives of Jewish community centers and rabbinical bodies, for the purpose of discussing the goals and programs of these centers. Rabbi Theodore Friedman, spiritual leader of Congregation Beth El, of Maplewood, N. J., was elected president of the Assembly for next year.